ForewordI have been running a full node, c-lightning and lightning-charged for a while now, recently i added a private electrs server and i installed/configured btcpayserver. Since it's quite a task to set all these services up in order to receive lightning payments, there's quite a learning curve, not to mention the hardware requirements and the time needed to set everything up.
I realise the lightning network is still in alpha stage, and at any point it's less secure than an on-chain payment... However it's instant and cheap (once you have open, funded channels), so i wouldn't mind helping people try out accepting lightning payments on my lightning node before going trough the troubles of setting everything up themselfs.
The serviceI can setup a useraccount on btcpayserver and install a store for you... That way you'll be able to write lightning invoices for MY lightning wallet. Btcpayserver also allows you to enter your xpub/zpub so it can derive addresses for on-chain payments (altough this is not the focus of this service). Btcpay isn't 100% stable when creating LN invoices tough (the service needs to be restarted manually since it seems to lose connection to my lightning-charged deamon from time to time).
Alternatively, i can work with you to setup a service trough my lightning-charged daemon, it's less user friendly, less fancy, allows less statistics to be made, but seems to be running stably.
After you've created a bunch of lightning invoices (and received a bunch of lightning payments), you can PM to request an on-chain payout of the sum of the payed invoices minus the service fee.
Who can apply for this serviceI'm
not a commercial entity (altough this service is not free), so my primary focus group are people that receive
micro-payments on an
occasional basis. I'm thinking about private auctions on this forum, raffles on this forum, tipjars, donation pages,... Commercial websites can apply as long as we're talking about trial runs: if you own a webshop and want to try out btcpay integration to receive a couple dozen payments before installing your own service or migrating to bitpay, i'll accept you to.
What are the guaranteesLike i said: i'm not a commercial entity, so i give NO guarantees whatsoever. You should consider all lightning software to be in alpha phase, i will not reimburse any funds in case something goes wrong. I also take no responsability if you lose your job, wife, house, health,... due to problems with my service...
However, in case you're running something solid and you need basic guarantees, i'd be willing to put some funds into escrow so i can't run away... This being said: it'll be pretty hard for most escrows to prove lightning invoices have been payed, so good agreements have to be made beforehand. I'm unwilling to pay the escrow fee or the transaction fees from/to the escrow tough (those ones have to be payed by you)
How much does it cost?In a perfect world, this service would be free... However, after receiving a reasonable amount of lightning payments on my site (unblur.ninja), i realised that a most customers open a new channel with my node to test out the lightning network. As soon as those channels close i'll be left with a bunch of very small unspent outputs funding my addresses. I'll be forced to spend a bunch on fees in order to spend those small unspent outputs, and i don't want to pay those fees out of my own pocket, even if it's for the good cause.
This is why, at the moment, i propose following service fee:
I propose to visit
https://coinb.in/#fees at the moment you request a withdrawal, at this moment we'll simulate how much fees it would cost me to spend the unspent outputs funding my node because of your invoices. We'll count each invoice as 1 input, 50% 'regular' 50% 'segwit' and add 2 outputs (1 regular, 1 segwit). Then we'll add 50% on top (just in case the fees go up by the time the channels have actually closed). Offcourse, if (after a while) you can more or less prove most payments come from repeat customers that already have open, funded, channels, i'll give you a discount.
I consider the fee to be sufficient for me to break even, maybe even make enough to treat myself to a beer over the weekend... However, you should not treat the fee as a "get rich quick" scheme from my side, it's basically enough to make sure i don't have to fund this service out of my own pocket... So don't expect professional grade support or uptime here!
